The Flame Alchemist's End
by Gage39
Summary: War has broken out and Ed receieves a surprising letter from the draft office. He goes to have a talk with Roy and winds up learning more about the Flame Alchemist than he wanted to know. Better than it sounds! Character death.


The Flame Alchemist's End

Edward Elric stared at the letter in his hand with genuine bewilderment. A new war had recently broken out and he had been dreading the day that he would receive his orders to ship out. And, finally, a letter had come but the news it bore was of a different sort.

_Dear Mr. Elric,_

_We at the Central Draft Office regret to inform you that your services are not needed in our upcoming war. As we were looking at your medical records we became aware of the fact that you have the disease known as Mesophoma, a disease which is normally contracted in either Ishbal or by breathing in large amounts of smoke on a regular basis. Due to the fact that you will shortly be dead (according to the medical records) we have decided that it would be advantageous to let you spend what little time you have left with your family._

_Sincerely,_

_The Central Draft Office_

Ed blinked and re-read the letter several times. Then a frown crossed his face and he grabbed his red coat before storming out of his dorm room. He had a certain Flame Alchemist to visit.

* * *

Riza Hawkeye didn't seem to the least bit surprised when Ed came storming in, thunder clouds following in his wake, leaving everyone he came in contact with drenched. "Hello, Edward," she said, catching his attention. "Won't you please have a seat?"

"Is he here?" Ed growled.

"Yes," Hawkeye replied. "He's in his office but before you go in there can I please talk to you?"

Ed considered her request. Hawkeye had always been nice to both him and Al, sometimes even taking their side in an argument with the Colonel. So he reluctantly nodded and plopped down in the chair across from her desk. "You have five minutes," he told her.

"How old are you, Ed? Fifteen? Sixteen?"

"Sixteen," the Fullmetal Alchemist said slowly. "But what does that have-''

"Roy was your age when he was sent off to war," she smiled sadly. "He had just received his state watch literally the day before when the orders came. I was only a year older so technically I didn't have to go but when I saw that scared teenager standing there, holding that watch like it was a lifeline I felt like I just had to go if only to keep an eye on him. I'm glad now that I did. Would you like to see a picture of us the day we left?" she asked then, without even waiting for an answer, she opened her desk drawer and pulled out a picture. It was of a teenaged Roy, Hawkeye, Farman, Havoc, Breda and even Hughes. They all looked so…young even Roy. Edward had never thought of the Colonel as being a teenager but not only was he one, but he also looked happy. A genuine smile was on his face on he had an arm slung around both Hughes and Hawkeye's shoulders.

"He was so happy," she said softly. "No doubt you already know that he killed Winry Rockefeller's parents?" When Ed nodded she smiled sadly then continued. "They were the first people that he ever killed. After that he swore to never use a gun again and he didn't. Instead he used only his alchemy and killed many, many more people than he would if he had used his gun but we didn't question his decision. Even back then we were willing to follow him anywhere. The reason that I'm telling you this, Ed, is because he was just a child when he left but he was a man when he returned. The war…it did something to him, to all of us. It broke us in many ways but I think it was harder on Roy than it was for us."

"But does this have to do with me?" Ed asked.

Hawkeye sighed heavily. "He doesn't want you to end up like him," she said gently. "That's one reason why he took you kids in under his wing; he was just trying to protect you."

Ed nodded, his frown gone. "But my medical records," he weakly protested.

"Perhaps you should talk to Roy about that," the woman suggested.

Ed nodded once more then got up and walked into the office.

"What? Did you forget how to knock?" Colonel Mustang said sarcastically, not even bothering to look up from the papers that he was signing.

Now that he was actually inside the office Edward took his time, surveying the room. For the first time in his life he noticed that he and Al took up the majority of the wall, mostly newspaper clippings and a few pictures while Hughes and the rest of Mustang's team took up the rest.

"Well? What do you want?" Mustang snapped, setting down his pen and looking directly at Edward.

It was then that Edward realized just how pale the Colonel really was and how big his blue eyes looked in his face. He saw the lines surrounding his eyes and mouth and mentally Ed compared the current image of Mustang to the one that Hawkeye had just shown him and he was shaken to his very core.

"What do you want, Edward?" Mustang asked more gently.

"My medical records," Ed managed to get out.

To his credit Mustang didn't pretend to not know what Ed was talking about but merely nodded. "Switched with mine," he said. "I contracted the disease while I was in Ishbal fourteen years ago. My doctors tell me that I only have a few weeks left and I'll be dammed if I spend them sitting at home in my apartment bored to tears."

"I can understand that," Ed said, for once deciding not to protest Mustang's decision to treat him as a child. He wanted to just for the basic principal of it all but, he eventually decided, it wasn't really worth it. Did he really want to end up like Mustang? Broken beyond repair, doing his best to redeem himself while being followed by a group of people as equally broken as himself or, Heaven forbid, having to deal with Ed and Al, two children who refused to listen to Mustang despite the fact that he only had their best intentions at heart? No, Ed thought. He didn't want to become Mustang; he didn't want to become a weapon for the Army to use at their whim. He would let Mustang win this round if only so he could get the face of that happy teenager out of his mind. "Thank you," he said grumpily.

Mustang blinked in surprise then nodded slowly. "You're welcome," he said then picked his pen back up and continued signing his reports.

Edward quickly fled the office, not even stopping to say goodbye to Hawkeye. Two months later she called him, saying that Colonel Roy Mustang had been killed in action while defending his team. A year after that the war ended and the Draft Office discovered their mistake with Edward's medical records but by then it was too late, the war was already over and Edward Elric had already quit the army to go searching for the Philosopher's Stone on his own.

* * *

A/N: It's not very good, I know that. This is my first Fullmetal Alchemist story and I hope you guys liked it. Please review and let me know what you think!


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